When he was nine years old, Guillermo Ojedo and his mother moved nearly 200 miles from their hometown of Veracruz, Mexico, to Colonia Del Valle, a neighborhood outside of Mexico City, so he could get the education unavailable to deaf students in Veracruz

Now 22, Ojedo has again relocated to further his education, this time to St. Louis Community College where the Cooperative Association of States for Scholarships (CASS) program is teaching English, American Sign Language and computer technology to deaf and hard of hearing students from Central American countries.

CASS is a partnership program between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), Georgetown University and 18 colleges and universities in 11 states that offer two-year scholarships to underprivileged students from Mexico, the Caribbean and Central America. These students are brought to the United States to learn English and specialize in a field of study that will prepare them to effect change in their home countries. CASS students have studied subjects such as agriculture, education and technology.

Ojedo is learning about computer technology at the Florissant Valley campus of St. Louis Community College with 13 of his fellow CASS participants. This year’s class represents six countries: the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and Nicaragua. All 14 students are either deaf or hard of hearing, a first for Florissant Valley.

After they complete the program, CASS participants are required to return to their home countries for at least two years. “We are training young leaders to go home and be agents of change,” says Susan McKnight, Florissant Valley’s CASS coordinator. “It really is a scholarship for their community.”

McKnight says the students will take with them a “community action plan” to put in place in their home countries, detailing their vision for how they will improve their communities. This year’s CASS students are excited about being able to go back to their communities and contribute, McKnight says, especially because many services aren’t available to the deaf community where they are from.